Elissa Wilcox- No other Gods

This Decalogue was my favorite between the two, although it was very sad. I thought that the contrast of the father's and the aunt's beliefs was presented well. The commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" was given to the Israelites in the context of the worship of many different gods in the shape of actual graven images. This film is a very good Midrash to the commandment because of the interpretation and application to society today. Not only does the commandment relate to actual carved images, but to anything that is held in higher esteem and worshiped above God. In the film the father believed that science and facts had a bigger impact on life and made more sense, where as the aunt believed that God was simple if you have faith. The father teaches the son about the computer, which symbolized facts and science, and the boy was very excited to learn about it. The aunt taught him about God and the boy was also very open to learning about Him. After the son and the father did the calculations for the thickness of the ice in order to see if it was thick enough to skate on, the father went out on the lake to actually test the thickness by hand. At the end of the film the viewer finds out that the son fell through the ice, even after all of the calculations. The film maker's purpose for this film was to show that science fails sometimes and was used as Midrash in the way that it expanded on the definition of idol and what it meant to "have no other gods before Me".